666 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 828 



Whatever their Qualifications were before, 

 whetlier a Preacher, a Reader of Prayers ... or 

 a Bellows-blower, or Nothing at all, it matters 

 not much, for at once, in the twinkling of an Eye, 

 as it were, after a Miraculous manner, they can 

 mount from the profundity of Ignorance to the 

 Pinnacles of Knowledge; from the Abyss of Noth- 

 ing, to the Altitude of being Doctors of Physic, 

 intruding into our Business with all the Impu- 

 dence imaginable, to the great Abuse and Scandal 

 of the Medical Art. 



But the point which Dr. Taylor wishes to 

 press home is that the enormous spread of 

 these irregular practises at the confines of the 

 medical art is permitted by the failure of 

 teaching bodies to adjust their curriculums in 

 harmony with the fullest requirements of the 

 community. 



The profession at large is rising to a clear 

 recognition of its widening responsibilities in the 

 broadest social and even political relationships. 

 The medical schools are still bound by the tradi- 

 tions of medical education as it was thirty years 

 ago. 



So far as psychiatry and this country are 

 concerned, we hope that the successive resolu- 

 tions of the Medico-Psychological Association 

 and the British Medical Association will not 

 be in vain, and that ere long thorough tuition 

 in all branches of psychological medicine will 

 be ofPered by every medical school. For the 

 broader issues of Dr. Taylor's discourse we 

 would refer readers to the article itself, but it 

 is pertinent to the occasion to say here that 

 he prophesies the development of an elective 

 system of medical education. 



It is not to be doubted that the wasteful method 

 of demanding a detailed course in surgery, for 

 example, from the prospective internist, or of 

 obstetrics from the future bacteriologist, will give 

 place to a more rational conception of the use of 

 time. An elective system modified to meet the 

 special demands of the situation is an inevitable 

 outcome of the present state of affairs if our 

 medical schools are to be the centers of educa- 

 tional activity which their equipment justifies. 



In the foregoing we have of set purpose 

 attempted merely to adumbrate the changing 

 relations between the profession and the public 

 as indicated by isolated instances selected from 

 an address which should be read in its en- 



tirety. Although descriptive of American con- 

 ditions and intended for American ears. Dr. 

 Taylor's address is in some degree applicable 

 to this country. The same changes are ob- 

 servable, and there is the same need for con- 

 stant readjustment of medical teaching to 

 meet these changes. Nebulous as yet, the al- 

 tering conceptions of the functions and prac- 

 tical duties of the medical man may take this 

 or that shape, may be guided by a united pro- 

 fession into fertilizing rains or crystallized by 

 one-sided legislation into the first snows of the 

 winter of our discontent. Headers of the 

 deeply interesting correspondence in our col- 

 umns upon proposed legislative changes will 

 have observed the sharp cleavage of opinion 

 even amongst medical men upon these pro- 

 posals. It is outside the purpose of this 

 article to discuss these matters, but it is 

 evident that if the profession is to secure in 

 the future the just reward of its labors and 

 to maintain its rights in the approaching con- 

 flict between individualism and collectivism, 

 it must frankly recognize the altering status 

 of the' medical man in the social economy, 

 decide upon a common plan of action to meet 

 changing conditions, and present a solid front 

 to all attempts to encroach upon its legitimate 

 territory. — The, British Medical Journal. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 A History of the Logarithmic Slide Rule 



and Allied Instruments. By Florian 



Cajori, Ph.D. 



The slide rule enjoys a wide popularity, 

 being employed in practically all of the large 

 engineering schools in addition to its use by 

 practising engineers. Parenthetically it may 

 be safely asserted that mathematicians in gen- 

 eral do not avail themselves of the services of 

 this instrument. Because of the wide use, 

 such a history as this by Professor Cajori of 

 the gradual development of the slide rule 

 through the course of three centuries should 

 appeal to a large circle of readers. While 

 written in popular style for this larger class 

 of readers and not primarily for the historian 

 of science, yet the work bears evidence of con- 

 siderable research in the literature of the 



